More than 5,000 amazing athletes are about to hit the streets of Cleveland and swim in Lake Erie

Edgewater Park on Saturday, Aug. 11, and Sunday, Aug. 12, hosts the 2018 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships, an event with a projected $6.5 million economic impact for the city. Plus, a Five Thirty Eight analysis shows just why Tiger Woods loves playing in Ohio, and the Cavaliers' preseason schedule includes a stop at the alma mater of owner Dan Gilbert.

It's taking place on Saturday, Aug. 11, and Sunday, Aug. 12, at Edgewater Park. The Olympic-Distance Age Group National Championship, which participants must qualify for, is on Saturday, while the Sprint National Championship, which is open to anyone, takes place on Sunday. Athletes will swim in Lake Erie and bike and run along the lake shore overlooking downtown Cleveland. Participants of both races "have the chance to compete for Age Group National Titles as well as spots on Team USA in 2019," according to event sponsor USA Triathlon. The Age Group National is USA Triathlon's largest and longest-running national championships event.

The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission estimates the event will have an economic impact of $6.5 million for Cleveland, which is hosting it for the first time since 1992. Even better: The event will be here again in 2019.

Here, via the sports commission, are some of the highlights:

• The 5,000-plus athletes competing come from all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

• There are 19 states with at least 100 athletes registered

• More than 300 athletes are coming from California

• Even farther, 15 are from Hawaii, and seven are from Alaska

• And still farther, there are 18 countries with registered athletes

• Visitors have booked at least 3,200 hotel room nights (not all such bookings can be tracked)

• The largest participation in the event to date took place in 2014, when 5,789 athletes registered to race in Milwaukee.

Even if you're not taking part, stop at Edgewater Park to see these amazing athletes.

FILE PHOTO

Tiger Woods in Akron

MIDWEST IS BEST

Maybe Tiger Woods should just move to Ohio. Or at least start his own tournament here.

Five Thirty Eight broke down the career performance of the world's most famous golfer and found that while he has won tournaments everywhere, "the place where he's dominated most is America's heartland: the Midwest." (Good thing, since this week's PGA Championship is at Bellerive Country Club in Missouri.)

From the analysis:

Woods has managed his most dominant performances in the center of the country. He has a higher percentage of top-25 finishes, top-five finishes and wins in the Midwest than he does in any other region of the U.S. One-third of the 69 total tournaments he played there resulted in wins, and nearly 30 percent of his PGA Tour victories have come in the region.

Woods has won more than twice as many tournaments in Ohio alone (13) as he has in the Southwest (four) and Northeast (two) combined. "He's just making mincemeat out of golf courses," the redoubtable Jack Nicklaus said after Woods won the 2000 Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, by five strokes. The following year, Woods won the tournament by an even wider margin. As he once succinctly put it, "[I've] done well in Ohio, I guess."

If you took Tiger's accomplishments only in Illinois — his two major championships (the PGA Championship in 1999 and 2006) among his seven career victories — he would already qualify for the World Golf Hall of Fame upon being of eligible age.

In total, Woods has placed in the top 25 at Midwest tournaments a gaudy 80 percent of the time. From 2000 to 2009, his average finish at Midwest tournaments was an unimaginable 5.3. Fewer than 30 players in the history of the sport have enough total PGA Tour victories to match Tiger's tally of 23 just in the Midwest.

Three tournaments — the WGC Bridgestone Invitational (formerly named the WGC-NEC Invitational) in Akron, the Memorial Tournament and the BMW Championship (formerly the Western Open) — served as the backdrop of 18 of Woods's 23 Midwestern wins.

Tiger will miss the Bridgestone as much as all of us who live in Northeast Ohio.

The team will open the preseason Oct. 2 in Boston, then play home games at Quicken Loans Arena on Oct. 6, again against the Celtics, and Oct. 8 versus the Indiana Pacers.

Cleveland will conclude the pre-season on Oct. 12 with a neutral-site game at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center at Michigan State University.

The Breslin Center, if you haven't been there, is home to Gilbert Pavilion, a snazzy entrance to the facility. Gilbert Pavilion opened last October and bears the last name of two major contributors Cavs owner (and Michigan State alum) Dan Gilbert and his wife, Jennifer Gilbert.

This will mark the Cavaliers' first game at the Breslin Center.

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